Hesper > Recent Status Updates

surprisingly fun so far

most of this is so unrelatable that it's practically fantasy

holding my attention a lot better now that i'm not reading it for class

this tries to do a lot...

not a huge fan of the beginning, and especially not of the constant flashbacks that require juggling several timelines when i'm not yet fully invested in the characters, but the writing redeems the clunkiness, and the magic system is intriguing.

wish i'd have paid attention to potential content warnings, tho; the sexual assault scene was that much more disturbing for being entirely unexpected.

hmm... i did make this far, but i suspect at least part of that is the impossible hope red will drop dead from all those cigarettes and then i'll be spared his pov.

bonus: that first drinking scene is so fucking slavic

I need to finish this, but in spite of still remembering everything so far, and loving a fair amount of it, I can't bring myself to pick it back up.

that's a lot of page time on breast feeding...

this is going to be the strangest read of the year, but only because i've spent the last 50 or so pgs training myself to skip the first two or three sentences after a particularly interesting occurrence because that's when vernon loves tossing in irritating cutsey asides. skipping those helps a great deal.

not that i'm not still considering dnf'ing this... the voice is a trial for me

the quirkiness of the voice really demands that something extra creepy happen soon; the cute the really isn't working for me. side note: mouse's likability saw a distinct plummet at the "everything i own smells like dog" part, but i do appreciate that it's made crystal fucking clear nothing bad happens to the dog.

mixed bag so far

"...making a safe space for stupidity...a space for uncertainty, for giving an impulse, an object, a material the benefit of the doubt. ... It is a conscious repression of evaluating in advance of action the value of the thought."
p.128

I was honestly not expecting this much Marxist criticism. <3

Idk how I like the way Aickman handles endings. Yes, I can feel them coming; no, they don't feel like a thing, but they stick, so...?

Not sure how I feel about the titular story--some eye rolling because honestly it just was Like That. The Trains is better, but maybe it's matter of warming up to Aickman's style. The level of psychological detail is impressive, possibly cumulative?

Fruit slices and starch paste?? That's vile (yes, it could theoretically be hummus, which is the opposite of vile, but it's specifically the same space tuber mush as before). Why does a civilization as elaborate as the Teixcalaanli Empire have such genuinely lousy food? This tiny detail is breaking my immersion.

oh, come on! this is the most ultra super advanced civilization in the galaxy and apparently their best breakfast is? space potato porridge?? that's genuinely depressing.

There's a fair bit of stylistic whiplash from early Lee and whatever this is. The humor is sharper, but her surreal lushness dims considerably.

What is finishing a book and how does it happen.

Fantasy Hamlet. I'm honestly glad I didn't know that about this book before starting it.

I am so mad at myself for letting my relationship with Jane Eyre prevent me from picking up this book.

lashon hakodesh - la langua de la leche (22)
muestras madres, las buenas mujeres (25), las madres de mi madre, las bavas, las tias, las ermanas (26)
melezinas de kaza, kozas de kaza (29)

"...and we exchanged chitchat for 5 1/2 hours about our respective children, about our ex-old men, all very, very heterocetra." p.22 -Trip To Russia

heterocetera... i love it

"Possibility is neither forever nor instant." p.38 -Poetry Is Not A Luxury